SECTIONS 8920-8926 - California Statutes

GOVERNMENT CODE

SECTION 8920-8926

8920. (a) No Member of the Legislature, state elective or
appointive officer, or judge or justice shall, while serving as such,
have any interest, financial or otherwise, direct or indirect, or
engage in any business or transaction or professional activity, or
incur any obligation of any nature, which is in substantial conflict
with the proper discharge of his duties in the public interest and of
his responsibilities as prescribed in the laws of this state.
(b) No Member of the Legislature shall do any of the following:
(1) Accept other employment which he has reason to believe will
either impair his independence of judgment as to his official duties
or require him, or induce him, to disclose confidential information
acquired by him in the course of and by reason of his official
duties.
(2) Willfully and knowingly disclose, for pecuniary gain, to any
other person, confidential information acquired by him in the course
of and by reason of his official duties or use any such information
for the purpose of pecuniary gain.
(3) Accept or agree to accept, or be in partnership with any
person who accepts or agrees to accept, any employment, fee, or other
thing of monetary value, or portion thereof, in consideration of his
appearing, agreeing to appear, or taking any other action on behalf
of another person before any state board or agency.
This subdivision shall not be construed to prohibit a member who
is an attorney at law from practicing in that capacity before any
court or before the Workers' Compensation Appeals Board and receiving
compensation therefor. This subdivision shall not act to prohibit a
member from acting as an advocate without compensation or making
inquiry for information on behalf of a constituent before a state
board or agency, or from engaging in activities on behalf of another
which require purely ministerial acts by the board or agency and
which in no way require the board or agency to exercise any
discretion, or from engaging in activities involving a board or
agency which are strictly on his or her own behalf. The prohibition
contained in this subdivision shall not apply to a partnership or
firm of which the Member of the Legislature is a member if the Member
of the Legislature does not share directly or indirectly in the fee,
less any expenses attributable to that fee, resulting from the
transaction. The prohibition contained in this subdivision as it read
immediately prior to January 1, 1983, shall not apply in connection
with any matter pending before any state board or agency on or before
January 2, 1967, if the affected Member of the Legislature was an
attorney of record or representative in the matter prior to January
2, 1967. The prohibition contained in this subdivision, as amended
and operative on January 1, 1983, shall not apply to any activity of
any Member in connection with a matter pending before any state board
or agency on January 1, 1983, which was not prohibited by this
section prior to that date, if the affected Member of the Legislature
was an attorney of record or representative in the matter prior to
January 1, 1983.
(4) Receive or agree to receive, directly or indirectly, any
compensation, reward, or gift from any source except the State of
California for any service, advice, assistance or other matter
related to the legislative process, except fees for speeches or
published works on legislative subjects and except, in connection
therewith, reimbursement of expenses for actual expenditures for
travel and reasonable subsistence for which no payment or
reimbursement is made by the State of California.
(5) Participate, by voting or any other action, on the floor of
either house, in committee, or elsewhere, in the passage or defeat of
legislation in which he has a personal interest, except as follows:
(i) If, on the vote for final passage by the house of which he is
a member, of the legislation in which he has a personal interest, he
first files a statement (which shall be entered verbatim on the
journal) stating in substance that he has a personal interest in the
legislation to be voted on and, notwithstanding that interest, he is
able to cast a fair and objective vote on that legislation, he may
cast his vote without violating any provision of this article.
(ii) If the member believes that, because of his personal
interest, he should abstain from participating in the vote on the
legislation, he shall so advise the presiding officer prior to the
commencement of the vote and shall be excused from voting on the
legislation without any entry on the journal of the fact of his
personal interest. In the event a rule of the house requiring that
each member who is present vote aye or nay is invoked, the presiding
officer shall order the member excused from compliance and shall
order entered on the journal a simple statement that the member was
excused from voting on the legislation pursuant to law.
The provisions of this section do not apply to persons who are
members of the state civil service as defined in Article VII of the
California Constitution.

8921. A person subject to this article has an interest which is in
substantial conflict with the proper discharge of his duties in the
public interest and of his responsibilities as prescribed in the laws
of this state or a personal interest, arising from any situation,
within the scope of this article, if he has reason to believe or
expect that he will derive a direct monetary gain or suffer a direct
monetary loss, as the case may be, by reason of his official
activity. He does not have an interest which is in substantial
conflict with the proper discharge of his duties in the public
interest and of his responsibilities as prescribed in the laws of
this state or a personal interest, arising from any situation, within
the scope of this article, if any benefit or detriment accrues to
him as a member of a business, profession, occupation, or group to no
greater extent than any other member of that business, profession,
occupation, or group.

8922. A person subject to the provisions of this article shall not
be deemed to be engaged in any activity which is in substantial
conflict with the proper discharge of his duties in the public
interest and of his responsibilities as prescribed in the laws of
this state, or have a personal interest, arising from any situation,
within the scope of this article, solely by reason of any of the
following:
(a) His relationship to any potential beneficiary of any situation
is one which is defined as a remote interest by Section 1091 or is
otherwise not deemed to be a prohibited interest by Section 1091.1 or
1091.5.
(b) Receipt of a campaign contribution regulated, received,
reported, and accounted for pursuant to Title 9 (commencing with
Section 81000), so long as the contribution is not made on the
understanding or agreement, in violation of law, that the person's
vote, opinion, judgment, or action will be influenced thereby.

8924. (a) No employee of either house of the Legislature shall,
during the time he is so employed, commit any act or engage in any
activity prohibited by any provision of this article. The provisions
of this article and Article 3 (commencing with Section 8940) which
are applicable to a Member of the Legislature are also applicable to
any employee of either house of the Legislature.
(b) Nothing in this part shall be construed to prohibit an
employee of either house of the Legislature from serving in an
elective or appointive office of any regional or local public agency.

8924.5. (a) The Legislature finds and declares that the California
Council on Science and Technology was organized as a nonprofit
corporation pursuant to Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue
Code in response to Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 162
(Resolution Chapter 148 of the Statutes of 1988). The council was
uniquely established at the request of the Legislature for the
specific purpose of offering expert advice to state government on
public policy issues significantly related to science and technology.
The establishment of the California Science and Technology Policy
Fellowships as a professional development program is consistent with
the Legislature's intent in requesting the creation of the council
and is expressly designed to fulfill the council's mission of
assisting state policymakers as they face increasingly complex
decisions related to science and technology challenges confronting
the state in the 21st century.
(b) The services of a California Science and Technology Policy
Fellow provided by the California Council on Science and Technology
and duly authorized by the Senate Committee on Rules, the Assembly
Committee on Rules, or the Joint Committee on Rules are not
compensation, a reward, or a gift to a Member of the Legislature for
purposes of paragraph (4) of subdivision (b) of Section 8920.
(c) A California Science and Technology Policy Fellow provided by
the California Council on Science and Technology and duly authorized
by the Senate Committee on Rules, the Assembly Committee on Rules, or
the Joint Committee on Rules is not an employee of either house of
the Legislature for purposes of this article.
(d) For purposes of this section, a California Science and
Technology Policy Fellow is "duly authorized by the Senate Committee
on Rules, the Assembly Committee on Rules, or the Joint Committee on
Rules" only if both of the following requirements are satisfied:
(1) The California Science and Technology Policy Fellow has been
selected according to criteria, and pursuant to a process, approved
by the Senate Committee on Rules, the Assembly Committee on Rules, or
the Joint Committee on Rules.
(2) The California Council on Science and Technology has executed
an agreement with the Senate Committee on Rules, the Assembly
Committee on Rules, or the Joint Committee on Rules whereby the
California Science and Technology Policy Fellow is bound to abide by
standards of conduct, economic interest disclosure requisites, and
other requirements specified by the Senate Committee on Rules, the
Assembly Committee on Rules, or the Joint Committee on Rules.

8925. No person shall induce or seek to induce any Member of the
Legislature to violate any provision of this article.

8926. Every person who knowingly and willfully violates any
provision of this article is guilty of a misdemeanor. Every person
who conspires to violate any provision of this article is guilty of a
felony.